The Physician and the Housekeeper
by Juliana Brandagamba
Summary: Because Gaius and Mrs Hudson should definitely be a thing. Oh, and it turns out Gaius is immortal. And yes, Mrs Hudson, I know you're not a housekeeper.
1. Paddington

**Note: I don't know London very well so apologies if anything is wrong with my geography.**

* * *

 **This story came about during a game of what I call "Situations" with andbreathe - one of those ones where you give characters numbers and then the other person reads out situations involving combinations of numbers. So andbreathe asked "Would 7 and 15 make a good couple?" and I looked down and said "Yes... YES!" They were Gaius and Mrs Hudson. A match made in heaven?**

* * *

Merlin and Gaius had never been across to London before. It did occur to them that this was quite bizarre – having been around for about 1,500 years and never once left Somerset. So one sunny weekend they decided to pool together what little money they had accumulated since the Dark Ages (which actually added up to about twenty thousand pounds, seventy guineas and a heap of shillings) and take a train journey to the city about which they had heard many things, both good and bad. At any rate, it would be a good few days spent sightseeing. There was little else to do whilst waiting for the Once and Future King to rise again.

When they stepped off the train at Paddington Station they were quite surprised to see so many people. There weren't many people in Somerset, and it was nice to see more people than sheep. They went along with the bustling crowd until they realised that they didn't really have any idea as to where they might be going. Gaius had apparently booked himself into a small guesthouse on Baker Street, wherever that was: he had neglected to bring a map.

Therefore he went up to the first person he saw who didn't seem to be in a hurry, who turned out to be a small-ish, old-ish woman browsing the magazines in WH Smith's.

'Excuse me,' said Gaius, 'but could you tell me how I might get to Baker Street?'

'But of course! You take the –' The woman turned to them, and seemed to become momentarily speechless. 'You just take the Bakerloo line,' she said, a little more quietly than before.

'And where might I find that?' asked Gaius.

'The Underground, of course. Oh – have you never been to London before?'

Merlin and Gaius both shook their heads very definitely.

'Easy to get lost in London,' the woman said sympathetically. 'Tell you what – I'll just buy this magazine and then I'll show you the way, if you like.'

She picked up a magazine about housekeeping from the shelf, mumbling something like _I'm not their housekeeper_ to herself, and Gaius and Merlin thanked her and said they would be very grateful but she didn't have to.

'Oh, no, it's fine, dears,' she said. 'I'm going that way myself.'

She went to the till to pay for her magazine and the romance novel she was clutching in the other hand. Whilst they were waiting for her, Gaius threw Merlin a relieved glance, but Merlin wasn't concentrating. He had been half-interested, half-worried whilst watching this whole exchange.

The looks Gaius and the woman had been giving each other had been especially worrying. The woman had been looking at Gaius slightly strangely, which could probably be explained by Gaius's robes, which he still insisted on wearing despite them having gone out of fashion in the twelfth century. But the look Gaius was giving the woman...

 _Oh God,_ thought Merlin. _Gaius has fallen in love._

* * *

'Martha Hudson,' said the woman as they were leaving the shop.

Gaius and Merlin both started. 'Hmm?'

'That's my name. Martha Hudson. But you can call me Mrs Hudson. Everyone does.' She offered an awkward handshake from below her handbag firstly to Gaius, then to Merlin.

'I'm Merlin and this is Gaius,' Merlin said, as Gaius seemed to have lost his tongue.

'Are you on holiday in London?' she continued cheerily.

'Yes – just for a few days,' Gaius said eventually.

'See the sights and things,' Merlin added, staring up above him as they exited the station. The city was buzzing with activity and the air was slightly heady with the air pollution that was unnoticed by Londoners, but distinct to two men who had spent 1,500 years in rural Somerset.

'You'll enjoy London, I know you will.' Mrs Hudson smiled. Then, just as they crossed the road, she said, 'Ah, here we are. I'll let you get your tickets.'

'Thank you very much,' said Merlin, flashing her one of his best smiles and shaking her hand.

'Ooh, he's a proper gentleman, your grandson,' Mrs Hudson said to Gaius, beaming. 'I hope you enjoy London. Goodbye then!' And with a cheery wave she disappeared into the depths of the underground station.

They did not comment on her first comment as they had many times been mistaken for grandfather and grandson, and had decided that it was much easier to pretend that that was the case.

Merlin bought the tickets, for he had adapted to modern life, and indeed every passing century, far better than Gaius had, and they went down to catch the train to Baker Street.

* * *

'Friendly, aren't they, these Londoners?' Gaius commented as they walked onto the platform.

'Well, that one was.' Merlin shot a sideways glance at Gaius, who was looking rather happy.

'Yes...' Gaius drifted off into some kind of absorbing daydream and Merlin had to pull him onto the train when it arrived. Their conversation dried up until they had reached the Baker Street stop, as nobody else in the carriage was speaking and it didn't feel right, but even when they had emerged into the daylight Merlin found that Gaius was being worryingly silent.

'What?' he asked.

Gaius jumped. 'Oh, nothing. I was just wondering... Which is our inn, Merlin?' he asked, changing the subject.

'Guesthouse,' Merlin corrected him. 'Nobody calls them inns any more... It's this one.' He led Gaius towards a townhouse whose window was advertising vacancies and bed and breakfast.

Just then Gaius, about to step off the kerb, halted and looked to his left. Merlin followed his gaze and groaned as he saw that Mrs Hudson was crossing the road further up. For a split second Gaius looked as if he had been frozen; then he blinked and continued after Merlin.

'I wouldn't keep stopping when you're crossing roads,' Merlin warned him. 'Cars are faster than horses, remember?'

Gaius still hadn't got used to cars, despite them having been around for more than a century.

'Mm,' he said vaguely. It was only when they had reached the door of the guesthouse that his eyes left a point somewhere down the street.


	2. Speedy's

The guesthouse, it turned out, didn't do breakfast, and so the next morning the pair decided to go down the street to a cafeteria that Merlin had spotted the previous day. It smelled a little as if it had been painted lately, and did a mediocre breakfast, but the service was good and the dining area quiet. After they had finished they emerged back onto Baker Street, found that it was beginning to rain, and ducked back under the awning with a map of London that Merlin had borrowed from the guest house. Just as they were studying it, the door of the house next to the café – a big black door up some steps with the number 221 emblazoned in gold numerals upon it – was flung open and a man whom Merlin could have sworn he recognised flew down the steps and into a waiting taxi. He was followed by a friend, or perhaps accomplice, and a minute later the taxi had swept down the street and out of sight.

'Did you think he was Mordred for a moment?' asked Merlin then, with a half-smile. His heart had skipped a beat at the resemblance to his old enemy.

But Gaius wasn't listening. His eyes were on the now-closed door of Baker Street.

'That nice woman – Mrs Hudson? – lives there, it seems,' he murmured. 'I saw her just as the door closed.'

Merlin pulled him around and thrust the map under his nose to distract him. 'Where should we go? I've heard the British Museum is fascinating...'

* * *

They went to the British Museum, and a couple of other, smaller museums, laughing occasionally at the displays from the times they had lived in, which were sometimes really rather inaccurate. Not that they bothered pointing this out – they had learnt long ago that nobody would believe them. They went back in the early evening, and Merlin retreated to his room in the guesthouse to read a book he had brought (actually his notebook in which he wrote useful – well, sometimes – spells, disguised as a classic novel with the old swapping-dustjackets trick – so he looked sophisticated as well as getting to read his spell book). A couple of hours later he put his book down, and a pen he had been idly twirling between his fingers, and, becoming hungry, went to see what Gaius was up to and whether it was time for dinner yet.

Gaius had vanished.

Merlin checked his room – the door was locked, and nobody answered to a knock or a call, so Merlin opened the door by magic and went in to check that Gaius was all right if he was in there – it only occurred to him afterwards that he might have been asleep – but the physician was nowhere to be seen.

Therefore he went downstairs and asked the proprietor whether he had seen Gaius leave. He said that he hadn't, but he had thought that he had heard the door close.

 _Gaius has escaped_ , thought Merlin. He reasoned quickly. _He didn't tell me where he was going. He didn't even tell me he was going. Gaius wouldn't do that, unless... unless... No, anything but that!_

* * *

Merlin raced down the road, coming to a halt at the little cafeteria – Speedy's – in which they had had breakfast. His eyes went swiftly to the door of 221 Baker Street. Then they fell suddenly on the café's interior. Gaius was sitting with his back to the window – and opposite him was a woman Merlin recognised immediately with a sinking feeling.

 _Good God,_ he thought, _that was quick._

And then: _Horror of horrors! Gaius is on a date! What do I do?_

And lastly: _Why am I so horrified by this? Let Gaius date people if he wants to. Never mind about the 1,500 year age gap..._

And so he left them to it. It wasn't, after all, his business.

* * *

He couldn't help feeling slightly amused by the concept though. It was a long while since Gaius had shown an interest in women. The last time he had, she had turned out to be an evil witch. Hopefully Mrs Hudson would be normal. And at any rate, it meant that they might be able to prolong their stay in London. Merlin rather liked London.

* * *

He had tea on his own that evening, and then retreated back to his bedroom. An hour or so later he head Gaius return and go into his own room. He resisted the urge to ask the physician where he had been, but became caught momentarily in a mental argument that told him that not asking him would reveal that he had known, but that asking would be impolite. He decided not to ask and instead fell asleep.


End file.
